英国新闻听力 生物钟与体育成绩

Our internal body clock has such a dramatic impact on sporting ability, it could alter the chances of winning Olympic gold and even determine Champions League football success, say researchers. The University of Birmingham study showed that performance times varied¹ by 29 percent throughout the day. Our health correspondent told me more.

This is an old idea. I mean, you have a body clock inside. It changes lots of other things including your athletic² ability. Now they’ve always thought that you used to have your peak of athletic performance around about late afternoon. But what they realize is all these studies were just looking at everybody together. What about people used to like to stay up late at night? So they did the study on a bunch of British hockey players and to see at what time of day their actual peak really was. So in the early risers, they found that their peak was around about lunch time, around about noon. Now if you think about the Olympic Games, you have athletes coming from all over the world to one place. Try to find out what time your competition is gonna be. You know, the 100-meter’s final is always in the evening. It’s never early in the morning.

I suppose that could explain partially³ home advantage, but is there a cultural difference to certain countries?

Well, this is one of the things I’m not entirely⁴ sure. But if you look at the Champions League, the pinnacle⁵ of European football, you tend to find that the Spanish have a naturally later society, tend to eat much later.

Portugal’s government has approved rules under which descendents of Jews expelled from the country centuries ago can now claim Portuguese⁶ citizenship⁷. Alison Roberts reports from Lisbon.

Portugal’s parliament almost two years ago approved a law for allowing for the naturalization of descendents of Jews expelled five centuries ago, but with statutory regulations lacking, no applications have beenpossible. Now the government has finally amended⁸ the nationality rules to make special provision for descendents of Sephardic Jews, as members of the community formed in Iberia are known who can prove a strong link to Portugal. This might, the government said, be a combination of surname, language used in the family or proof of direct descents. Many of the thousands of Jews expelled in 1497, five years after Spain’s ownorder of expulsion, or who fled later to avoid forced conversion⁹ to Christianity, continued to use a form of Portuguese in their new communities in Amsterdam, Istanbul, New York and across Brazil. As the government notes, Jews settled in this part of Iberia long before the Kingdom of Portugal was founded in the twelfth century.

我们体内的生物钟对运动能力有极大的影响，据研究人员称，它甚至可以改变赢得奥运金牌的几率，决定足球欧洲冠军杯的成败。伯明翰大学研究表明，比赛时间在一天内变化29%。本台健康记者详细报道。

这不是什么新观点。你体内有一个生物钟，它能改变许多其他的事情，包括你的运动能力。现在，人们总是认为运动能力的峰值产生于傍晚时分。但研究人员意识到，所有这些研究都只是在关注人们的整体状况。那喜欢熬夜的人呢？所以，他们以一群英国曲棍球运动员为研究对象，观察他们一天中的巅峰时刻。他们发现早起的人的峰值出现在午饭时间，大约是正午。现在，你可以联想一下奥运会，运动员们从世界各地来到一个地方。要争取弄清楚你的比赛在什么时候。比如，100米决赛经常在傍晚举行，而永远不会在凌晨。

我想这能够在一定程度上解释主场优势，但某些国家会有文化差异吗？

噢，这一点我也不太清楚。但如果你观察欧洲冠军杯——欧洲足球的巅峰赛事，你就会发现西班牙人天生比较喜欢在时间上滞后一点，他们吃饭都比一般国家晚得多。

日前，葡萄牙政府制定法规，批准几个世纪前遭到驱逐的犹太人后裔可以重获葡萄牙国籍。艾莉森·罗伯特里斯本报道。

近两年前，葡萄牙议会立法批准五个世纪前被驱逐的犹太人后裔入籍葡萄牙，但由于缺乏具体可依的法规，无一例成功申请。现在，政府终于重新修订国籍法，为塞法迪犹太人制定专门条款。这些人生活在伊比利亚，能够证明和葡萄牙有密切关联。葡萄牙政府称，这些关联可能表现在姓氏、家庭语言或者直系血统上。1947年，在西班牙驱逐令下达五年后，数千名犹太人遭到驱逐，后来还有人为避免转信基督教而逃离葡萄牙。在阿姆斯特丹、伊斯坦布尔、纽约和巴西，他们中很多都在新的居住地继续使用葡萄牙语。据政府记载，在12世纪葡萄牙王国建立前很久，犹太人就已定居在伊比利亚半岛的这一部分。

1 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

2 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

3 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

4 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

5 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
• It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。

6 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

7 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

8 Amended   

adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He asked to see the amended version. 他要求看修订本。
• He amended his speech by making some additions and deletions. 他对讲稿作了些增删修改。

9 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。